BonnerSprings.com

Students in Bonner Springs are coming home from school Friday afternoons with more than just books and homework in their backpacks.

Thirty-five students at Bonner Springs Elementary are now benefiting from the BackSnack program, which provides children with free backpacks full of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks for the weekend. Harvesters Community Food Network in Kansas City, Kan., started the program in 2004, but BSE has only been in the program about a month.

Counselor Mendy Brentz, who coordinates the weekly event from a BSE classroom, said she can already see the positive effect it has had on her students.

“I’ve actually had kids come up to me and say thank you, and they appreciate it,” Brentz said. “They’re very thankful. They’re excited to see what’s in ’em.”

Every Friday afternoon Brentz, along with a handful of student and adult helpers, stuffs backpacks with the food donated by Harvesters. The backpacks are also donated by Harvesters, and when Brentz and her team are done for the day, the bags will include everything from breakfast cereal and pudding, to milk and juice, to microwaveable macaroni and cheese and soups.

In addition to the Harvesters food, Brentz took it upon herself to sign the school up for Panera Bread’s Day-End Dough-Nation program. On a nightly basis, the program allows charitable organizations, food banks and schools in need to come to its stores and pick up, for free, any unsold baked goods. Brentz said she picks up, on average each week, around $250 to $300 worth of bread, bagels, pastry and breakfast items, which she distributes throughout the backpacks.

“It also helps parents knowing that (their children) are gonna come home with food,” Brentz said. “I think the parents are very grateful for it.”

Brentz gives the backpacks to the students at the end of the day, and when Monday rolls around, the students return the empty bags to Brentz to be used again the next weekend. Brentz said the 35 students who received the backpacks were chosen by school staff based on which students they felt might needed some extra assistance the most. One criteria for a school to be eligible for the program is having at least 50 percent of its students in the free and reduced school lunch program. With 52 percent of students falling in this category at BSE, Brentz said there was definitely a need to be filled.

“Being a school counselor, I just know the needs of families, so I try to help them out a little bit,” Brentz said.

Clark Middle School has also been involved in a BackSnack program the past three weeks through Gear For Sports. The Lenexa-based sports store adopted CMS in 2007 when the business was looking for ways to give back to the community. Janet Fulgham. vice president for human resources, said the first donation was made in October 2007, when Gear For Sports gave 6,000 pieces of sports-related clothing to the students. February marks the business’ first time donating food to the school.

“The premise of this is that we don’t think it’s appropriate for children in the United States to go hungry,” Fulgham said.

Fulgham said the Clark program was modeled after Harvesters’ BackSnack program. Every week, Gear For Sports provides the backpacks and the food, which includes oatmeal packets, soups and fruit. Parents can call the school and sign up their children for the program. Fulgham said the program was currently feeding 28 students during the weekend, but Gear For Sports was ready to feed more and hoped to do so after this school year.

“We have raised the money to fill the bags at least through the end of this school year,” Fulgham said. “We have a lot of excitement about this program, so we hope to be able to start it up again in the fall when kids start up again at Clark.”

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